WASHINGTON — A disgraced London banker has rescinded an offer to co-host a high-dollar fundraiser for Mitt Romney, sparing the GOP hopeful the difficulty of appearing at a lavish event with a man embroiled in scandal.

Romney‘s plan to hold a fundraiser in London this summer with Barclays CEO Robert Diamond

also known as Bob Diamond

was reported June 28 by the London Telegraph. The cost of the dinner seemed to shock the British paper, which noted that “the price of invitations dwarfs the amounts paid for such fund-raisers in British politics.”

On Tuesday, Diamond resigned from Barclays after his bank was fined more than $450 million by British and U.S. authorities for attempting to manipulate the Libor rate (London interbank offered rate), a key global metric used to set everything from credit card to mortgage interest rates.

IN the same week that the capitalist banking system was exposed as a centre of criminal venality, lying and cheating in order to secure vast profits at the expense of ordinary working people, it has been reported that an estimated one million children in Britain are living with ‘food insecurity’, not knowing where their next meal will be coming from: here.

Where the Money Lives: Vanity Fair Report Reveals Loopholes, Offshore Havens Behind Romney’s Fortune. Amy Goodman, Democracy NOW!: “Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney is on the hot seat over where he stashes his vast personal fortune, estimated at up to $250 million. We speak with reporter Nick Shaxson, whose new Vanity Fair article, ‘Where the Money Lives,’ delves into the murky world of offshore finance and reveals loopholes that allowed Romney to skirt tax laws and store millions in foreign tax havens. The article has sparked the latest round of questions about Romney’s taxes and offshore accounts, amplified by Romney’s refusal so far to release more than one year’s worth of tax returns.” Watch the Video and Read the Transcript here.

Romney Caught Lying by SEC Forms: He was CEO, President, Chairman and Owner of Bain When He Claims He Wasn’t. Mark Karlin, BuzzFlash at Truthout: “This blows a huge credibility hole in the Romney narrative of being a job creator, in addition to his own company’s documents contradicting him, and leaves little room to conclude anything other than that he lied. It will be legally impossible for him to effectively deny what is stated in SEC documents and Massachusetts State filings, because that could raise the specter of being accused of fraudulent financial reports. FactCheck.org previously implied that such a scenario, filing false government reporting documents, would be a felony”: here.